''Murderers' Row'' is a 1966 American comedy spy-fi film starring

Dean Martin Dean Martin (born Dino Paul Crocetti; June 7, 1917 – December 25, 1995) was an American singer, actor, and comedian. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Cool", he is regarded as one of the most popular entertainers of ...

Matt Helm Matt Helm is a fictional character created by American author Donald Hamilton (1916–2006). Helm is a U.S. government counter-agent, a man whose primary job is to kill or nullify enemy agents—not a spy or secret agent in the ordinary sense of ...

. It is the second of four films in the Matt Helm series, and is very loosely based upon the 1962

spy novel Spy fiction is a genre of literature involving espionage as an important context or plot device. It emerged in the early twentieth century, inspired by rivalries and intrigues between the major powers, and the establishment of modern intellig ...

'' Murderers' Row'' by

Donald Hamilton Donald Bengtsson Hamilton (March 24, 1916 – November 20, 2006) was an American writer of novels, short stories, and non-fiction about the outdoors. His novels consist mostly of paperback originals, principally spy fiction, but also crime ...

Ann-Margret Ann-Margret Olsson (born 28 April 1941), credited as Ann-Margret, is a Swedish-American actress and singer with a career spanning seven decades. Her many screen roles include '' Pocketful of Miracles'' (1961), ''State Fair'' (1962), '' Bye Bye B ...

and

Karl Malden Karl Malden (born Mladen George Sekulovich; March 22, 1912 – July 1, 2009) was an American stage, movie and television actor who first achieved acclaim in the original Broadway productions of Arthur Miller's '' All My Sons'' and Tennessee Will ...

co-star in this sequel to '' The Silencers''.

Plot

The film begins with a shot of the

United States Capitol The United States Capitol, often called the Capitol or the Capitol Building, is the Seat of government, seat of the United States Congress, the United States Congress, legislative branch of the Federal government of the United States, federal g ...

being destroyed. It is actually a scale model being used in the demonstration of a heliobeam weapon in the headquarters of the Bureau of International Government and Order ("BIG O"). BIG O is a secret organization with the goal of

world domination World domination (also called global domination, world conquest, global conquest, or cosmocracy) is a hypothetical power structure, either achieved or aspired to, in which a single political authority holds power over all or virtually all the i ...

that previously appeared in '' The Silencers''. With the aid of a mole, BIG O conducts a worldwide assassination campaign against various secret agents working for ICE (Intelligence Counter Espionage). Matt Helm fakes his own death in preparation for investigating the scheme undetected. Helm meets his boss, Mac, for a mission briefing. They watch a film showing Solaris enjoying himself with young women on the beaches of

Cannes Cannes (, ; , ; ) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a communes of France, commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions Internatio ...

. Helm is to track down the now missing Dr. Solaris, who has developed the powerful "heliobeam" weapon, a device that uses the concentrated power of sunlight for mass destruction. Helm is told if he can not rescue Solaris he is to kill him, and if captured to kill himself, lest BIG O brainwash him. He is to work under the name of James A. Peters. Posing as a Chicago

gangster A gangster (informally gangsta) is a criminal who is a member of a gang. Most gangs are considered to be part of organized crime. Gangsters are also called mobsters, a term derived from ''Organized crime, mob'' and the suffix ''wikt:-ster, -st ...

named Jim Peters, an alias of "Lash" Petroni, Helm travels to the

French Riviera The French Riviera, known in French as the (; , ; ), is the Mediterranean coastline of the southeast corner of France. There is no official boundary, but it is considered to be the coastal area of the Alpes-Maritimes department, extending fr ...

, flying into

Nice Airport Nice ( ; ) is a city in and the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative city limits, with a population of nearly one million Ford Thunderbird The Ford Thunderbird is a personal luxury car manufactured and marketed by Ford Motor Company for model years 1955 to 2005, with a hiatus from 1998 to 2001. Ultimately gaining a broadly used colloquial nickname, the ''T-Bird'', Ford Introduce ...

awaits him and he drives along the coast. He takes a package from the glove compartment containing a gun and a bottle of

Ballantine's Ballantine's is a brand of Blended whisky#Scotland, blended Scotch whisky produced by the Chivas Brothers subsidiary of Pernod Ricard in Dumbarton, Scotland. The Ballantine's flavour is dependent on fingerprint malts from Miltonduff and Glenb ...

Irish whiskey. Trying to drink as he drives he finds the bottle holds a small tape recorder with a message from Mac instead of whiskey. He goes to a discotheque where he meets Suzie, an attractive girl who dances with him, but is arrested by the police: being framed for a murder. At the police line up he is not picked out and he is freed. He then goes to the harbour at

Marseille Marseille (; ; see #Name, below) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region. Situated in the ...

where he is picked up by a mechanical grabber for a high-level discussion with Julian Wall. They leave in a

hovercraft A hovercraft (: hovercraft), also known as an air-cushion vehicle or ACV, is an amphibious craft capable of travelling over land, water, mud, ice, and various other surfaces. Hovercraft use blowers to produce a large volume of air below the ...

to reach Wall's island hideout. He is imprisoned but after escaping he beats Wall's henchman, Ironhead, and takes the hovercraft back to the mainland. He drives the hovercraft up the street to the disco where Suzie is wearing a booby-trapped brooch which is just about to explode. Helm rips it off her and throws it at the wall where it hits a poster of

Frank Sinatra Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Honorific nicknames in popular music, Nicknamed the "Chairman of the Board" and "Ol' Blue Eyes", he is regarded as one of the Time 100: The Most I ...

and explodes. Helm says "Sorry Frank". Suzie and Helm are then pursued on the road in a car chase with Ironhead shooting at them. Ironhead's car goes over a cliff but Ironhead survives. They then take a speedboat back to Wall's island where another henchman, Dr Rogas, is torturing Solaris. However Suzie and Helm are both captured. Wall tortures Suzie until Solaris gives in, and tells the secret of getting his weapon to work. Meanwhile, Helm is put in a giant shaker machine to shake him to death. They escape and end up in a

dockyard A shipyard, also called a dockyard or boatyard, is a place where ships are built and repaired. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Compared to shipyards, which are sometimes more involve ...

where Helm fights Ironhead until Suzie brings a giant magnetic crane over his head and picks him up. The final scene shows the two rivals on two separate hovercraft and a duel between them. Wall picks up Helm's trick gun which has a ten-second delay and thereby shoots himself in his confusion. They save Washington, D.C., from being destroyed.

Cast

as Matt Helm *

as Suzie *

as Julian Wall * Camilla Sparv as Coco Duquette * James Gregory as MacDonald * Beverly Adams as Lovey Kravezit * Richard Eastham as Dr. Norman Solaris * Tom Reese as Ironhead * Duke Howard as Billy Orcutt * Ted Hartley as Guard * Marcel Hillaire as Police Capt. Deveraux * Corinne Cole as Miss January * Robert Terry as Dr. Rogas * Dean Paul Martin as himself * Desi Arnaz Jr. as himself * Billy Hinsche as himself

Production

The film was the second of four produced by Albert R. Broccoli's former partner

Irving Allen Irving Allen (born Irving Applebaum, November 24, 1905 – December 17, 1987) was an Austro-Hungarian–born American theatrical and cinematic producer and director. He received an Academy Award in 1948 for producing the short movie '' Climbin ...

and Martin's Meadway-Claude Production company for

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc., Trade name, doing business as Columbia Pictures, is an American film Production company, production and Film distributor, distribution company that is the flagship unit of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group ...

in the mid-1960s starring Martin as

secret agent Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering, as a subfield of the intelligence field, is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information (intelligence). A person who commits espionage on a mission-specific contract is called an ''e ...

Matt Helm. Euan Lloyd, a former

Warwick Films Warwick Films was a film company founded by film producers Irving Allen and Albert R. Broccoli in London in 1951. The name was taken from the Warwick New York Hotel, Warwick Hotel in New York City where Broccoli and his wife were staying at the ...

publicity specialist and producer of '' The Poppy Is Also a Flower'', assisted Allen in production chores. Like its predecessor '' The Silencers'', it took a much more light-hearted approach to the source material, treating it more as a gadget-laden spoof of

James Bond The ''James Bond'' franchise focuses on James Bond (literary character), the titular character, a fictional Secret Intelligence Service, British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels ...

films than Hamilton's original serious spy story. Unlike Hamilton's world weary professional, Martin plays Helm with his own

persona A persona (plural personae or personas) is a strategic mask of identity in public, the public image of one's personality, the social role that one adopts, or simply a fictional Character (arts), character. It is also considered "an intermediary ...

, a fun-loving, wise-cracking alcoholic playboy. Co-starring is

as Dr. Julian Wall, whom ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' film critic

Bosley Crowther Francis Bosley Crowther Jr. (July 13, 1905 – March 7, 1981) was an American journalist, writer, and film critic for ''The New York Times'' for 27 years. His work helped shape the careers of many actors, directors and screenwriters, though some ...

describes as a "Kansas type Dr. No". Malden had the idea that his character speaking in a different accent every time he spoke would be amusing. Also in the film are Tom Reese as his Oddjob-type henchman named "Ironhead" and Beverly Adams returns as secretary Lovey Kravezit, as do the Slaygirls, a group of beautiful and dangerous women. Columbia starlet Camilla Sparv plays Malden's assistant Coco Duquette and Soon Tek-Oh makes a brief appearance as a Japanese agent killed in his bath. The first script was by Oscar Saul, who had written ''The Silencers''.

Herbert Baker Sir Herbert Baker (9 June 1862 – 4 February 1946) was an English architect remembered as the dominant force in South African architecture for two decades, and a major designer of some of New Delhi's most notable government structures. He was ...

, who had received a screen credit after he wrote the final version of ''The Silencers'' script, was brought in to rewrite Saul's first draft of ''Murderers' Row'' and received sole credit. Baker had written several

Martin and Lewis Martin and Lewis were an American comedy duo, comprising singer Dean Martin and comedian Jerry Lewis. They met in 1944 and debuted at Atlantic City's 500 Club on July 25, 1946; the team lasted ten years to the day. Before they teamed up, Martin ...

screenplays and was a writer for ''

The Dean Martin Show ''The Dean Martin Show'' is a TV Variety show, variety-Television comedy, comedy series that ran from 1965 to 1974 for 264 episodes. It was broadcast by NBC and hosted by Dean Martin. The theme song to the series was his 1964 hit "Everybody Loves ...

''. Filming began 18 July 1966. The film was originally intended to be shot totally on location, but Martin, who also co-produced the film, refused to go to Europe.

Second unit A second unit is a discrete team of filmmakers tasked with filming shots or sequences of a production, separate from the main or "first" unit. The second unit will often shoot simultaneously with the other unit or units, allowing the filming s ...

teams shot sequences in

Villefranche-sur-Mer Villefranche-sur-Mer (, ; ; ) is a resort town in the Alpes-Maritimes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region on the French Riviera and is located southwest of the Principality of Monaco, which is just west of the French-Italian ...

Monte Carlo Monte Carlo ( ; ; or colloquially ; , ; ) is an official administrative area of Monaco, specifically the Ward (country subdivision), ward of Monte Carlo/Spélugues, where the Monte Carlo Casino is located. Informally, the name also refers to ...

and the

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight (Help:IPA/English, /waɪt/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''WYTE'') is an island off the south coast of England which, together with its surrounding uninhabited islets and Skerry, skerries, is also a ceremonial county. T ...

for the

and helicopter sequences instead. The then-new SR.N6

appearing in the film's sea sequences (with the land chase through the streets of Juan-les-Pins and scenes with Martin using a studio

mockup In manufacturing and design, a mockup, or mock-up, is a scale or full-size model of a design or device, used for teaching, demonstration, design evaluation, promotion, and other purposes. A mockup may be a ''prototype'' if it provides at lea ...

of the hovercraft interior and back projection) was provided by Hoverwork Hovercraft as their first assignment with a Cushioncraft CC5 appearing as well. Henry Levin had previously directed the

Dino De Laurentiis Agostino "Dino" De Laurentiis (; 8 August 1919 – 10 November 2010) was an Italian film producer and businessman who held both Italian and American citizenship. Following a brief acting career in the late 1930s and early 1940s, he moved into f ...

superspy film '' Kiss the Girls and Make Them Die'' for Columbia. He would also direct the following Matt Helm film, ''The Ambushers''. The

titles A title is one or more words used before or after a person's name, in certain contexts. It may signify their generation, official position, military rank, professional or academic qualification, or nobility. In some languages, titles may be ins ...

are again by

Wayne Fitzgerald Wayne Fitzgerald (March 19, 1930 – September 30, 2019) was an American film title designer. Over a career that spanned 55 years, he designed close to five hundred motion picture and television main and end title sequences for top directors such ...

, and James Curtis Havens continued in the series as

second unit director A second unit is a discrete team of filmmakers tasked with filming shots or sequences of a production, separate from the main or "first" unit. The second unit will often shoot simultaneously with the other unit or units, allowing the filming s ...

. Like its predecessor, the film is full of jokes, bizarre secret weapons like a Hy Hunter Bolomauser modified AR-7 pistol configuration that only fires ten seconds after the trigger is pulled, plenty of beautiful women, and fashionable mod 1966 costumes by Moss Mabry. Karl Malden's character uses a

Gyrojet The Gyrojet is a family of unique firearms developed in the 1960s named for the method of gyroscope, gyroscopically stabilizing its projectiles. Rather than inert bullets, Gyrojets fire small Rocket (weapon), rockets called Microjets which have l ...

spearfiring pistol and a volley gun type pistol. Helm kills a guard with a dart fired out of a cigarette; a weapon also used in ''You Only Live Twice''. Martin's Helm drove a 1966

Ford Thunderbird The Ford Thunderbird is a personal luxury car manufactured and marketed by Ford Motor Company for model years 1955 to 2005, with a hiatus from 1998 to 2001. Ultimately gaining a broadly used colloquial nickname, the ''T-Bird'', Ford Introduce ...

landau Landau (), officially Landau in der Pfalz (, ), is an autonomous (''kreisfrei'') town surrounded by the Südliche Weinstraße ("Southern Wine Route") district of southern Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is a university town (since 1990), a long ...

Reception

Released only ten months after ''The Silencers'', ''Murderers' Row'' was the eleventh highest-grossing film of the year. The film received 1967 second place Laurel Awards for Best Action Drama and Best Action Performance for Martin. ''Murderers' Row'' was followed by '' The Ambushers'' (1967) and '' The Wrecking Crew'' (1968). A fifth film, ''The Ravagers'' with Sharon Tate reprising her ''Wrecking Crew'' character and Dean Martin doing a dual role, was announced but never produced. Martin refused to make ''The Ravagers'' so Columbia reportedly held up Martin's share of the profits on ''Murderers' Row''. The 1960s Helm spoofs (as well as the two Derek Flint movies with

James Coburn James Harrison Coburn III (August 31, 1928 – November 18, 2002) was an American film and television actor who was featured in more than 70 films, largely action roles, and made 100 television appearances during a 45-year career.AllmoviBi ...

, the first of which came out the same year as the first Helm feature) seemed to become the template of the 1970s Bond films and in some cases Helm film set pieces were copied by the later Bonds. In '' Diamonds Are Forever'', SPECTRE threatens the world with a heliobeam device from an orbiting

satellite A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scient ...

. The electromagnetic demise of Ironhead in the film happens to the giant "Jaws" villain in '' The Spy Who Loved Me'', the hovercraft chase on sea and land reoccurs with a gadget-filled

gondola The gondola (, ; , ) is a traditional, flat-bottomed Venetian rowing boat, well suited to the conditions of the Venetian lagoon. It is typically propelled by a gondolier, who uses a rowing oar, which is not fastened to the hull, in a scul ...

in '' Moonraker'' with that film's evil mastermind Hugo Drax making jokes similar to Julian Wall.

Soundtrack

The

film score A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film. The score comprises a number of orchestral, instrumental, or choral pieces called cues, which are timed to begin and end at specific points during the film in order to ...

is by

Lalo Schifrin Boris Claudio "Lalo" Schifrin (born June 21, 1932) is an Argentine-American pianist, composer, arranger, and conductor. He is best known for his large body of film and TV scores since the 1950s, incorporating jazz and Music of Latin America, Lati ...

, replacing

Elmer Bernstein Elmer Bernstein ( '; April 4, 1922August 18, 2004) was an American composer and conductor. In a career that spanned over five decades, he composed "some of the most recognizable and memorable themes in Hollywood history", including over 150 orig ...

. In addition to the driving main theme and spy time score, Schifrin includes some jazz pieces, with one having a

cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...

Bud Shank Clifford Everett "Bud" Shank Jr. (May 27, 1926 – April 2, 2009) was an American alto saxophonist and flautist. He rose to prominence in the early 1950s playing lead alto and flute in Stan Kenton's Innovations in Modern Music Orchestra and thro ...

, as well as a song with lyrics by Howard Greenfield ("I'm Not the Marrying Kind") for Martin that, due to contractual rights, didn't appear on the

soundtrack album A soundtrack album is any album that incorporates music directly recorded from the soundtrack of a particular feature film or television show. The first such album to be commercially released was Walt Disney's ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs ( ...

. It did, however, appear on Martin's LP, ''Happiness is Dean Martin''.LP Discography
Billy Strange slightly changed Schifrin's main title to be an "original" composition entitled "Spanish Spy" on his ''James Bond Double Feature'' album. The pop group Dino, Desi & Billy (which featured Martin's son, Dean Paul Martin, who calls Helm "Dad" in the film) makes an appearance and sings the Boyce & Hart song, "If You're Thinkin' What I'm Thinkin'".

Footnotes

External links

* * * *
original teaser trailer
{{DEFAULTSORT:Murderers' Row (Film) 1966 films American spy comedy films 1960s science fiction comedy films Columbia Pictures films Films based on American novels Films based on thriller novels Films set in France Films set on the French Riviera Films shot in Villefranche-sur-Mer Films shot in Monaco Films shot in England 1960s adventure comedy films Films directed by Henry Levin 1960s spy comedy films American sequel films Films scored by Lalo Schifrin 1966 comedy films 1960s English-language films 1960s American films English-language adventure comedy films English-language science fiction comedy films English-language spy comedy films Matt Helm films